Making volunteers the backbone of our community CIC

Make More is a Midlands-based Community CIC set up in 2023. They work with people of all ages from low-income households, low socio-economic backgrounds and those from Global majority communities to provide tech and digital, social support, educational opportunities and STEM resources that they would not otherwise have access to.  Co-Founder and Strategic Director, Simeon Douglas, tells us about the role that volunteers have played in Make More’s early growth and success. 

“We’ve been using volunteers for over a year now to support our small staff team and they’ve been phenomenal.  

“Through Reach we’ve been able to bring on board very experienced people to provide support across a number of different functions including marketing, writing and research, fundraising and education and curriculum.  

“Not only has it helped with capacity building, but it’s also brought in specialist knowledge and understanding of the areas we’re working in. Volunteers have brought particular skillsets to the table which have allowed us to expand what we’re doing and reach more people. It has been great.  

“I’m on Reach frequently. I list specific volunteer opportunities, but I also look at profiles proactively too which has enabled me to approach people I think would be a good fit.  

“For some roles we’ve had plenty of direct applications while for others with less interest, I have used the proactive approach to message people about opportunities. Overall I would say that it’s not difficult to find good people.  

“I do try to be flexible with the roles. Clearly we are after a particular skillset, but I’m very appreciative of people giving up their time so we can adapt roles if needed. For example, we’ve just successfully recruited a Bid Writer and during her interview and induction she told us that she has experience of Bid Management, so we were able to tweak that role to be a Bid Manager role as this fitted her experience better.  

“I find it’s really important to have open and honest conversations about volunteering right from the start, particularly around time commitments. We have had a few people who have moved on quite quickly and some who haven’t been able to give as much time as they thought. But it still takes something off my plate and we’re grateful for the help. I firmly believe that by having these conversations, we can avoid misunderstandings and set our volunteers up to succeed in their roles.  

“We offer all volunteers the same induction as staff members and I actively involve them in the organisation and our projects. They all have email addresses and are not treated any differently to our staff. We provide training opportunities for all volunteers and I also provide as much direct feedback on the impact they are having as possible. It's the best way to thank them.  

“By bringing in specialist volunteers, we’ve been able to build capacity in our organisation as well as benefit from fresh perspectives on how we’re approaching, developing and delivering our projects. This help has been invaluable.  

“It’s definitely our plan to continue using volunteers and the Reach platform to help us grow. The expertise they bring would be out of our reach if we had to pay for it, so the investment that we do make in terms of recruitment time, induction and training is  certainly worth it.”